February 2012

Music by Bacharach features 16 prime recordings associated with a man whose name is synonymous with a certain kind of complex yet assessable pop music.

Burt Bacharach transcends the role as a behind-the-scenes songsmith. Despite the fact that he didn’t sing much and mostly worked in the service of others, Bacharach was a ‘60s star. He hosted prime-time television specials, was pictured on magazine covers and, with his wife at the time—screen star Angie Dickinson—appeared in a series of commercials (“Say yes!”).

If you haven’t tried our lighter roast yet, now’s the time. Between February 6-8 at participating stores in the United States and Canada, purchase a Starbucks® Blonde Roast 16 oz. bag or a Starbucks VIA Veranda™ Blend 12 pack and get a free handcrafted beverage of your choice – any size, no less! So you can indulge in your favorite beverage in the store while stocking up on a new favorite Starbucks® Blonde Roast coffee for brewing at home or on the go.

Bob Dylan has been famous for so long that it’s easy to forget how he first became famous. It wasn’t as a recording artist or performer, but as a songwriter.

His self-titled debut album appeared 50 years ago this spring and failed to generate much attention, except among some industry insiders, some of whom dubbed it “Hammond’s folly,” a jab at John Hammond, the legendary producer/label exec/talent scout who brought the barely-out-of-his-teens Dylan to Columbia Records.

Preparing material for his second album, Dylan penned an anti-war tune that came to the attention of th

“Our grandfathers left us a timeless treasure,” Lankamo Lana tells me as we walk through the impenetrable lush garden farms of the Homacho Waeno Cooperative in Sidamo. “The ability to understand how to keep coffee ageless through garden farms,” he says.

Most coffee farms can be traversed with ease through the relatively wide spaces between growing coffee trees, but here, the spaces between are filled with growing food. I can barely keep up with him as I carefully avoid destroying the delicate crops. I stare at him, pretending I understood what he just said, as he disappears into the next garden.

At Starbucks, we spend a lot of time focused on coffee quality, and with good reason – it is at the heart of our most popular beverages. But if our signature Espresso Roast is the heart, then great steamed milk is the body that holds our espresso beverages together.

Over the next month, Starbucks is rolling out a new custom steaming pitcher to help our expert baristas make even better steamed milk for your beverage. The secret is in the shape. It’s tapered and concave, allowing for the “whirlpool” motion needed for steaming perfection.

The program is comprehensive, calling for just employment strategies, economic accountability and environmentally sustainable agriculture practices, all while maintaining our high bean quality benchmark, and it involves continuous efforts and long-term planning.

When you’re picking out a bagel, how do you choose? Do you always pick the same kind, or do you venture into new bagel territory? Maybe it depends on your mood. Which of these best fits the way you feel today?

Some of you have noticed that the packets or our new Starbucks VIA Blonde Veranda Blend™ are a bit longer than our other Starbucks VIA Ready Brew products, but they still make perfect 8 oz cups of coffee. This difference in length is due to the lighter roast of the coffee, which leads to a fluffier microgrind. The granules are so much larger that the difference is visible to the naked eye.